Typing of two Middle Eastern populations with the Precision ID Ancestry Panel

Ancestry informative markers have a great potential for ancestry inference in forensic genetic casework. However, applying ancestry inference in casework requires sufficient allele frequency data on as many populations as possible to allow the determination of biogeographical origin. Therefore, Turkish and Iranian individuals were SNP typed with Massively Parallel Sequencing with the Precision ID Ancestry Panel (Thermo Fisher Scientific) to assess whether it was possible to differentiate geographically proximate populations in the Middle East using this kit. Analyses showed that it were not possible to separate the two populations and neither was it possible to separate them from European and South-Central Asian populations. The two Middle Eastern populations were highly admixed with components from both Europe and South-Central Asia. Thus, it is important to identify genetic markers that are characteristic of the various Middle Eastern populations.